Barba's Perspective
by TribalVipe
Summary: Carmen needs a raise, Barba needs a chill pill, and Brian Cassidy gets his ass handed to him.


A/N: Ok, so I wrote this little one-shot because khughes830 on tumblr requested it and who am I to turn down such a good one-shot idea? I don't own SVU or its characters. ENJOY!

* * *

Carmen truly did the best she could, but there was only so much one could do when a man, stronger than her, was trying to bust through the doors of the meeting room just a floor down from where his office sat.

Where he _should_ be sitting, going over depositions for a case he was assisting in for Homicide. Which was only two days away from going to trial. On top of that, it was a serial murderer and yet, Rafael Barba, dignified and always professional Assistant District Attorney, saw fit to nearly throw a fit out in the hallway. That left her trying to calm him down, to avoid drawing any more attention to himself than he already was.

She'd never seen him this wound up. He was always calm and collected and she rarely, ever saw that vein in his forehead and…was it throbbing?

"Mr. Barba, you're already on thin ice with that suspension a few months ago," she said, practically holding onto his arm as he stomped down the hall, nearing the meeting room where Lieutenant Benson sat, getting grilled by an investigator. She knew the whole story of what had transpired, because despite her desire to be unlike her other fellow legal assistants, she found herself unable to eavesdrop one day when she stopped by and accidentally left the door to his office cracked open, spilling everything onto Mr. Barba, who'd gone red in the face but did nothing but rubbed her shoulder as she unloaded.

Rubbed her shoulder…he wanted to do more than that and Carmen knew it. One of the perks to having her job, was the fact that she went unnoticed most of the time, which left her privy to those longing looks he would send her over files and in-office lunch meetings.

However, trying to save her boss from barging into the interview room and making a fool of himself, and losing his job shortly after, was not a perk. She needed a raise for this one.

"Carmen," he ground out, shrugging his arm from hers before he shut his eyes and took a deep breath, his hands deftly adjusting his tie, "I just want to poke my head in and see if there's anything I can do."

"But, it's a D.A. investigation- "

"Carmen. Please."

She sighed deeply and just as she was about to let him go and ruin his career, a door just feet away from them swung open and revealed a red-eyed Lieutenant, tucking her hair behind her ear and talking on the phone. The woman looked surprised to see him and she slowed, ending her phone call abruptly. Carmen watched as Mr. Barba took a shuddering breath, obviously noticing the glassy eyes of his friend.

If you could call her that. Carmen sometimes wondered if the two were an item and they were just really good at hiding it, but Mr. Barba was wound so tight, she highly doubted it.

"What are you doing down here," she asked, nodding briefly at Carmen, who stood awkwardly to the side. Barba cleared his throat and tucked his hands into his pocket and that vein on his forehead disappeared completely.

"I was in the area." Carmen controlled the eye-roll from behind him and crossed her arms, keeping a neutral face. It wasn't often the man had to come up with a lie or an excuse of some sort, that was obvious.

"Oh. Well, I was…you know," Benson looked away from him and down to the floor, her hand tightening around her phone. He noticed it too and he reached out to touch her arm. Carmen felt awkward, like she was intruding on them and she decided to make her leave, content to go back up to the office and get back to work.

Ten minutes later, Mr. Barba walked back through, looking refreshed, but the grim lines on his face were still present and he nodded at her, telling her to take an extra paid lunch break on him. She smiled gratefully and continued typing, happily forgetting the entire incident.

* * *

While Carmen was happily typing away outside, Barba was fuming.

He was so irritated and enraged, he had to take off his suit jacket, vest and tie, rolling up the sleeves and unbuttoning the first three buttons of his shirt. He paced his office for a while, blinds closed as he set up to watch the depositions he should have been done with by now.

His mind was still trying to wrap around just how _fucking_ idiotic this entire situation was. Liv. Olivia Benson. Child abuse? Just the mere mention of the words made him curl up in disgust. Who, on Earth, could look at her and think she would abuse a child? Yeah, she was aggressive at times, because she had to be when she dealt with scum of the Earth on a daily basis. So did he, and so did half of the cops roaming NYPD as he stood there, trying to gather himself enough to work.

The whole thing made him sick, from the thought that little Noah was almost run over by a taxi, to the fact that the investigator dared to even bring up that godforsaken psycho William Lewis. It made him so sick, he was beginning to feel nauseous and that was when he decided he needed to buckle down and get to work to try and calm down.

He needed to, most importantly, because he was meeting with her at Forlini's after work to grab a quick drink, and he didn't need to show just how raging mad he was about the situation. She didn't need that now. She needed normalcy, and he would give her just that.

* * *

A few days later, he about broke his office door and he felt bad for scaring the living hell out of Carmen, but _dammit_ , he couldn't help it.

Brian Cassidy.

Brian 'Fucking' Cassidy.

The name made his toes curl and his fists clench. He never liked him. Not at all. Which, was fitting, because the guy never liked him either. They were both content to stay that way and he'd been happy when him and Liv broke up and he moved on down to wherever the fuck he went to after they did. Life was better, until the Tucker thing, but he tried not to think about.

He could still feel the anger rolling off Liv when, just a half hour ago, she stepped into her office and slammed the door closed, rattling the glass and leaving him to stare at her from her sofa, eyebrow quirked and coffee cup raised. She nearly turned to chew him out, but as soon as she realized it was him and not some random person, she let a few angry tears fall and spilled everything to him. Again.

Again, he felt the anger seeping into his bones, blinding him the entire way back to his office. He was pretty sure he bumped into a hot dog vendor and told him to 'fuck off' in Spanish and that made him feel slightly better, but nothing else was doing the trick.

It was way too early in the day to even entertain the thought of calming himself down with some scotch, or suggesting drinks again so she could, at least, relieve some tension. He didn't want to angry eat, because he'd gain ten pounds and be even more pissed about that. All this anger had to be bad for his heart.

He took a deep breath and turned on his heel, muttering something about coffee to Carmen, who very loudly said nothing and minded her own business. She needed a raise.

He was only half way down the court house steps when he saw Brian Cassidy walking up with purpose, headed straight towards him. The man stopped when he saw him, eyes a little wide as Barba sent him the coldest glare he could give. It was powerful enough to destroy the universe in that moment, but all he wanted to do was destroy Brian Cassidy.

So…he did.

"You incompetent, pathetic excuse of human life."

"Hello to you too, Barba. I see you've spoken with Liv," Brian tried smiling but it failed when he realized Barba wasn't going to just up and pretend like he didn't know everything that was going on. Of course, he knew. He worked at the D.A.'s office and he worked closely with Liv. He was going to be privy to most things that were happening in her life, just like the detectives who saw her daily.

Barba had ten million things that he wanted to say, but his mind could only settle on one thought, "Someone's feelings got hurt when they were dumped, I see."

"It's not like that-" Brian pointed his finger and Barba wanted to rip it right off his hand. He was glad he was standing a few steps in front of him, giving him the height advantage he seldom had over Liv's ex's. It made him feel even more powerful than he usually felt on a normal day.

"I don't care what it's like! You were there for William Lewis and you blurted her business out like it was yours to tell. Do you know what she went through? Do you? Did she tell you everything?"

Brian hung his head and shoved his hands in his pockets, refusing to meet his eyes, "I was trying to help."

"Well you didn't. On top of this shit, she has to deal with a child abuse investigation all because of a bruise on Noah's arm because she saved him from being _hit by a taxi_!" He didn't realize how loud he'd been talking until he looked around the busy stairs and saw a few people slowing down, looking at them and speaking amongst themselves.

He rolled his shoulders and adjusted his tie, "I hope you're happy with yourself, Cassidy. You've just officially become the biggest fucking idiot this side of the Universe and I hope, _oh God_ , I hope she ripped you a new one."

Barba shoved past him and continued down the steps, a small, vindictive smile gracing his features as he stalked towards the coffee cart just across the street. He pulled out his phone as soon as he got his cup and shot off a quick text to Liv, asking if she could meet up for lunch at their favorite spot. Her answer was almost immediate, giving him a time with a little smiley face at the end.

That warmed him a bit and he took a soothing breath, feeling the anger slip away with every minute that passed until lunch time arrived and he was sitting down on the barstool next to her, his scotch already waiting on the bar.

"Have a good morning?" She asked because she probably noticed the unusual pep in his step from the moment she spotted him walking in the door. He chuckled a little, resting his arm across the back of her chair in a bold move. She didn't mind and for the first time in weeks, he saw her smile back at him.

"The best."


End file.
